I love this work, and gosh do I love Chile!

April 24, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week!! They are seriously flying by like rockets. And this week? the exciting news....ELMA ACCEPTED A DATE! Yayyy!!! She has the goal of being baptized the 18th of May. She came to church this last Sunday, for three hours and a tour before, and loved it. She wanted all the books that we had (principles of the gospel and Teachings of the prophets for RS) and when we met with her on Tuesday she had already read like five chapters of Gospel Principles. In our lesson, we invited her to be baptized and she accepted, and it was SO powerful, especially when Hermana Centurion was bearing her testimony about how much we love Elma and how we are studying and praying for her every day...and then Hermana Centurion began to CRY! I was utterly shocked because, I mean, I am a complete spiritually emotional water hose so I cry when I am bearing my testimony all the time, but this was the first time I had see her cry, and so of course I began to cry and it was just beautiful. (not because we were crying..because the spirit was there haha) 

But this is really a miracle because this is the story of how we found Elma: We were in the home of this really ANCIENT couple teaching about the Book of Mormon (side note...this couple absolutely loves us because we helped them bring in all of their firewood, but they are very concerned because that we, as Mormons, are all going to hell for a reason I can not figure out) and the couple was telling us all the reasons that they couldn`t touch the Book of Mormon when in came Elma, a member of their church. They asked her what she thought of the Book of Mormon and she said she couldn`t say, she`d never read it, but that her problem was that it didn`t appear in the Bible. Hermana Centurion asked her once if we could come another day and teach her more. She said no thank you. We continued to teach, and I asked her again, and she said no. Finally, we talked more and I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon, promised her it was in the bible, and asked if we could please show her. I remember this moment so well, and the look in her eyes. The house was completely silent. And she said yes. Isn`t it really a miracle? Right now my very favorite scripture is in doctrine and covenants 123:17-- "Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, and see the arm of God..." (or something like that. That version is the Kimberly Monroe translation from Spanish...) 

Anyways, here are some fun Chilean facts

-Chileans know how to throw tea parties. Seriously. They also eat what is called Once, which is dinner but super late and always with tea and bread and marmalade and all sorts of delicious things. Also, everyone here eats crackers (galletas) with marmalade. Its super common...and yummy!

--Alright...here is the mistake of the week. and it was hilarious. We had almuerzo with a sister in the ward who is widowed (which was fabulous and three courses. in case you were wondering) but as we were leaving Hermana reese asked "ella es una bruja? Porque ella no tiene un espouso?" She had meant VIUDA which means widow, but she said Bruja, which means witch. So she had asked if the poor sister was a witch, since she didn't have a husband. Hermana Centurion and I laughed so hard so we actually had to sit down in the middle of the street.

-We went to Entre Lagos! it was STUNNINGLY beautiful but unfortunately, last week my SD card got lost/stolen so all of you should google entre lagos to see.

-Final thought. I am developing some serious missionary humor...for example, this week I muttered to Hermana Centurion when a machine was taking forever to print "before the second coming please?" it`s awful, especially because we think we are SO funny.

Oh!! And some shout outs...Thanks grandma for your letter! I got it Tuesday! I was soo very happy to hear from you. And RAE BLANCO! Congrats on your mission call and thank you for the email!!!! I never did get your dear elder but a letter is on its way to you in the states! And also! Congrats to ALEX MONROE! my dear, you are going to be fabulous. And thank you to Kristin and Jenna for their letters--I sent you letters last week so I hope they arrive soon.

But I love you all! And please keep Elma in your prayers. Also, that we can find new investigators and help our investigators to progress. 

I love this work, and gosh do I love Chile! Also, I can receive emails from anyone, however I can only write one email back - to my family. But please feel free to email me at kimberly.monroe@myldsmail.net

All my love, 

Hermana Monroe